


Every Little Girl Flies... er... Swings

by Moebius



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Gen, really really alternate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28264170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moebius/pseuds/Moebius
Summary: Peter takes his daughter swinging for the first time.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Peter Parker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18
Collections: Younger Avengers





	Every Little Girl Flies... er... Swings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magnetgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetgirl/gifts).



> This is set in a fan-made alternate universe called "Younger Avengers" that's been around for a decade or so (yikes, I'm old). You don't need to know much about that set up, other than: after the events of Civil War (the comic one)/Dark Reign, Carol Danvers and Peter Parker (the adult, comic one) got together and eventually had a couple of kids, Ben and Amelia.

Peter absolutely, unequivocally, incontrovertibly does NOT tell Carol the first time he takes Amelia out swinging. In fact, he waits for Carol to be very far away and very very occupied. Carol can fly and Ben can fly, and Amelia is 24 months old when they realize she probably can’t and 28 months old when Carol wakes up from a nap to find her on the ceiling.

“She’s a Spider!” Peter, who ran into the room when Carol called his name, expecting someone or something or both to be on fire, can tell Carol is caught somewhere between disappointment and amusement, which is fine. He’s pretty good at tipping the balance towards amusement.

“Okay.”

“Some of your favorite people in the world are Spiders, Caroly.”

“Yes.”

“Like me, for example!”

“Mmm, that’s one.”

“And Jessica. The Spider one, not the punching one.”

“I’ve seen them both punch you.”

Peter pauses. “Okay, good point.” He thwips a bit of web and attaches it to Amelia’s waist, tugging gently so she falls into his arms. “And Anya.”

“Peter, I know who my friends are.”

“And lovers!” He waggles his eyebrows.

In response, Carol’s eyebrows shoot to the ceiling. “What? Oh, you mean you.”

“Uh.” Amelia has pulled the webbing off her waist and stuck it to her father’s chin. “As opposed to…”

“Nobody.”

He narrows his eyes. “You and Jess?”

“Peter, you’re changing the subject.”

“No I’m not. However, I am secure in the strength and commitment of our relationship and whatever happened between you and any other Spiders in the past is totally fine, I’m good with it, no big deal.” 

“Great.”

“But if it’s Jessica Jones we’re in a fight.”

Carol shakes her head and walks away. Amused.

Three years later, Peter has crafted child-sized web shooters, which he (secretly) gifts to Amelia while her mother is away somewhere in space saving a planet. He swears both children to secrecy and then he asks Amelia when she wants to go swinging. She looks at Ben who looks worried but shrugs and then looks back at her dad and says, “Right now, Daddy.”

“Great!” It’s what he’d hoped for. He looks at Ben. “Okay, no telling your mom until after we come back totally safe.”

“But what if you -” Ben is seven and going through a very serious phase that Peter hopes he will grow out of. 

“Ben, I’ve been swinging through the city since before you were born, and-”

“Well, yeah, Dad, obviously.” Ben is also going through a young genius phase and Peter hopes he never ever grows out of that. But that maybe he talks back less to his dad in the future. He makes a mental note to ask Aunt May how insufferable he was when he was that age.

“And you can come with us.”

“Really?” 

“Really?”

Both kids ask in unison and Peter feels a teeny tiny moment of guilt that by making Ben an accomplice to his plans he can’t rat them all out to Carol. “Yes, who better to watch out for Amelia than a boy who can fly?”

Putting Ben in charge of Amelia’s safety has the desired effect. Ben walks purposefully back towards his room and returns a moment later with a dollar-store domino mask on his face.

“Uh, Ben?”

“We have _secret_ identities, Dad.”

“Everyone knows who your mom is, kiddo.”

“Yeah, but not you or me or Amelia.”

Peter opens his mouth to reply, remembers he basically fought most of his friends, including Carol, over this very topic and then thinks better of it. “Okay, well, we need something for your sister.”

Amelia, who had been waiting very patiently for her dad and brother to be ready, chirps, “Daddy, I have this,” and runs off, shuffling back into the room with a Spider mask that was obviously bought at the same store where Ben got his domino mask.

“Hey, that’s not Spider-Man, that’s Silk!”

Amelia blinks at him. “I like her.”

Hmph. Kids. He makes a mental note to tell Cindy to back off his turf and, if necessary, to call Anya in as back up. “Okay, well those masks don’t stay very well when you’re swinging, so here…” With a few flicks of his wrist, he reinforces the string of the mask with webbing.

“Okay, it’s Go Time.”

“Is that your catching phrase, Daddy?”

“Catchphrase. And no it definitely isn’t, I’m way cooler than that.”

Amelia looks like she agrees, but Ben definitely does not. Instead of defending himself to his seven-year-old son, Peter opens the window, lifts Amelia up, and swings out into the city. Amelia squeals with delight as Ben floats quietly behind them, but there’s a smile on his face and his eyes sparkle in a way that reminds Peter so much of Carol it causes his heart to skip a beat.

They’re out for an hour and it’s mostly Peter swinging while Amelia watches the city below her, wide-eyed. Eventually he takes her to a park and tells her she can practice on the trees before they go home. She makes a good go of it, with Peter coaching her and Ben floating along, on alert for any mishaps. It’s a good hour, and they all go home with flushed cheeks and big smiles behind their masks.

When they get back, Carol is sitting on the couch, pretending to flip through a magazine. Peter has no idea where she got it; he hasn’t seen a paper magazine in years. He looks closely and sees that it’s not in English. “Do they have magazines on other planets?”

Carol answers his question with a question. “Do they have partners who engage in child endangerment while people are away saving whole solar systems?”

“Uh, is that a quiz in the back, like Cosmo?”

She takes in her children and their masks, her expression fond, before turning back to stare at Peter. “Kids, go to your room. And take those masks off.” 

The kids prance out of the room, hand in hand.

“Okay, Carol, I can explain.”

“Peter…”

“See, it was Amelia’s birthday…”

“Mmhmm, I was there.”

“And who knew she’d develop Spider abilities so early, right? I guess my mutation isn’t like one of those hormonal X-mutations so we don’t have to wait til puberty, yay!”

“Peter…”

“Anyway, I thought it would be fun for her and Ben would be fine, and she was fine! Everyone’s fine!”

“Peter!” Carol always gives Peter a couple of rambling sentences before she cuts him off. “I’m not mad that you took Amelia swinging.”

“Oh?” He shuffles over to the couch. “Is it Ben?”

“What? No, Ben is fine. Obviously.”

“The Silk mask? Because, really, I’m a little miffed about that myself so you can’t blame me but you can be sure I will write a strongly worded email to Cindy about it.”

Carol rolls her eyes as Peter pulls his own mask off and sits next to her on the couch. “ I’m not mad at all, you doofus.”

Peter scrunches his face up a bit. He’s not usually so off about her reactions. Carology was his minor in post-grad. “Oh. So we were just joking about child endangerment, check.”

“I’m disappointed.”

“Worse!”

“Not at you. I just… wish I could have been there.”

“ _Oh_.” He takes her hand. “It didn’t occur to me that you’d want to be involved in a Spider thing.”

“The last decade of my life has been defined by my involvement in Spider things, Petey.” Her voice is soft now. She’s opening up. 

“Does that involvement include Jess?” It had become enough of a running joke over the years that Peter still trotted it out occasionally, though never within earshot of any Jessicas. 

“I’m not afraid to punch you.”

“Incredibly weird how many times I’ve heard that from people in my life.” Peter leans over and kisses Carol on the cheek. “We’ll go back out tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow seems a bit soon?”

“I swing every day.”

“You’re not five!”

“No, but if I _were_ five, I’d want to swing every day anyway, so it’d be better to do it with supervision.”

Before Carol can answer, there’s a crash from the kids’ room. Followed by giggles. Definitely Amelia’s, since Ben’s serious phase is still in very full swing. “Peter, did you take the web shooters away from her before you let them wander off?”

“Carol!” Peter is already halfway across the room. “You’re the one who sent them to their rooms!”

“Take the web shooters away from her!” 

That evening they make a deal that Peter and Carol will supervise the web shooter situation until Amelia is old enough to go out on her own, which will definitely come back to figuratively bite them in the future. But for now, everyone, including Amelia, agrees. And the next day, they go out as a family. Amelia mostly clings to Peter’s back, but occasionally she clings to her mother’s. Either way, she soars.

They all do.


End file.
